Ravichandran Ashwin predicts MS Dhoni to be Player of the Match in RPS v MI encounter

Rising Pune Supergiant will take on Mumbai Indians in their first match of the season at Pune today.

Published - 06 Apr 2017, 12:59 IST | Updated - 06 Apr 2017, 12:59 IST

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Ace Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has backed his team India and Rising Pune Supergiant team mate MS Dhoni to call the shots in the first home game of RPS in the IPL 10. Ashwin, who was also on the roster for the same franchise for this edition of the IPL, was earlier ruled out of the entire season due to sports hernia. The RPS camp were severely dented by his exclusion and recent named Tamil Nadu player Washington Sundar as his replacement.

The exclusion of Ashwin from the tournament definitely saddened the RPS camp as they missed out on seeing his best in the previous edition as well. Ashwin largely struggled in IPL 2016, which was very unusual considering the fact that he was a juggernaut with the ball for the Chennai Superkings in the previous editions. The future of the RPS franchise remains uncertain and this potentially means that Ravichandran Ashwin might never be on the Pune roster again.

However, despite being out of the side, he is ensuring that he shows full support to his franchise. He is backing the Rising Pune Supergiant to come good this season. The Supergiant will take on the Mumbai Indians in their first match of the season at the home venue at Pune on April 6. Ashwin believes that MS Dhoni will be the player of the match in the fixture.

Gen Next Academy, a cricket academy that is mentored by Ravichandran Ashwin, recently asked the fans and Ashwin on Twitter to predict who the Man of the Match would be in the RPS v MI encounter. They wrote, “Predict the Man of the Match of today’s match! @ashwinravi99 #RPSvMI #VIVOIPL #GenNextPredictionContest”.

Predict the Man of the Match of today's match! @ashwinravi99 #RPSvMI #VIVOIPL #GenNextPredictionContest
— Gen Next Academy (@gennextcricket) April 6, 2017

The Indian off-spinner took very little time to come up with the response that would please most of the cricket fans. He took the name of the former Indian skipper and expects him to be onsong today. The fans would hope that the prediction comes true and some good entertainment comes their way.